gramophone

/ˈɡræməˌfəʊn/

noun

1.

Also called acoustic gramophone. a device for reproducing the sounds stored on a record: now usually applied to the nearly obsolete type that uses a clockwork motor and acoustic horn US and Canadian name phonograph

(as modifier): a gramophone record

2.

the technique and practice of recording sound on disc: the gramophone has made music widely available

Derived Forms

gramophonic (ˌɡræməˈfɒnɪk) adjective

Word Origin

C19: originally a trademark, perhaps based on an inversion of phonogram; see phono-, -gram

Berliner's machine used a flat disc and succeeded with the public. Edison's phonograph used a cylinder and did not. Despised by linguistic purists (Weekley calls gramophone "An atrocity formed by reversing phonogram") who tried to at least amend it to grammophone, it was replaced by record player after mid-1950s.